The Internet is transforming society. But is it leaving African-Americans
behind?

Two major studies say "yes."

A 1998 Vanderbilt University study found that 73% of white high school
and college students have a computer in their home, yet only 33% of their
black peers do. 28% of white Americans with household incomes of less than
$40,000 annually have home computers, compared with 13% of African-Americans.
13% of white households with income under $40,000 use the Internet, compared
to 8% of African-American households. And white lower-income households
that do access the Internet do so more frequently: When whites and blacks
from households making under $40,000 were asked if they'd visited the World
Wide Web in the past month, more than three times as many whites as blacks
said yes.

A major U.S. Commerce Department report found similar results. The Commerce
Department found that 40% of all white households have computers, compared
to 19.3% for African-Americans and 19.4% for Hispanics. At incomes higher
than $75,000, the Commerce Department found, 76.3% of white households owned
computers, compared to 64.1% of black households.

African-Americans cannot afford to be left behind in the information
age.

What can be done?

First, we can support government policies that make the Internet more
accessible. For instance, AT&T recently purchased the national TV cable
company TCI with the intention of offering Internet service through TV cable.
This would be a boon to black families, who currently are more likely to
have cable service than Internet access. Unfortunately, some big business
interests - like the Internet service America Online - are attempting to
block AT&T's action, and the matter was brought before a Senate committee
on April 13 for investigation. Policymakers should be told that AT&T
should be allowed to offer Internet service through TV cables.

Second, we need to teach our kids about the Internet and monitor their
use of it, to make sure the time they spend online is positive and productive.
Schools without computers and Internet access can get online more cheaply
than they might think, as many businesses routinely throw away or send to
storage computers that are just a couple of years old. These businesses
could be convinced to donate them to a school in return for a tax deduction.

Third, we can keep Internet taxes low to help lower-income families pay
for access. The Internet Tax Freedom Act, approved by Congress after an
uphill fight by Representative Chris Cox (R-CA), bans new taxes on the Internet
for three years. This could be extended.

Fourth, we need to build and maintain intact families. The Department
of Commerce report found that one of the most significant factors influencing
children's access to the Internet is family structure. Commerce found that
households composed of married couples with children are approximately twice
as likely to own computers and have Internet access (57.2% and 29.4% respectively)
as are single-headed households headed by a male (30.5% and 14%) or a female
(25% and 9.2%).

Tamar Jacoby of the Manhattan Institute reports that, by next year, 60%
of all U.S. jobs will require technical skills and that - although African-Americans
make up 12% of the U.S. workforce - only 4% of the jobs in the lucrative
computer science field are held by blacks. The computer industry has 200,000
unfilled jobs now and a million new computer jobs will need filling by 2006.

Computer jobs are, for the most part, lucrative and prestigious positions.
As African-Americans, we should position ourselves to take our share of
them, and we should seize the other educational, career and recreational
benefits the information age makes possible.

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(Council Nedd is a member of Project 21 and the director of government
affairs for Citizens Against Government Waste.)

Note: New Visions Commentaries reflect the views of their
author, and not necessarily those of Project 21.